


Starsong

by tommino



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: AU, Gen, Mer!Lance, Mermaids, Space mermaids, ft. lance taking unnecessary risks for the sake of a badass dramatic reveal, keith pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 23:03:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18375890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tommino/pseuds/tommino
Summary: The paladins are crewmates aboard a mercenary space vessel, sent to the outer reaches of the system to investigate the recent disappearance of Empire ships. Keith discovers that the ship's captain, Sendak, has actually been hired to capture a different prize:mermaids.With siren calls that interfere with ship scanners and songs that mimic the distress beacons of friendly crafts, astral mermaids are a threat commonly believed to be myth among most spacefarers. But when lives are at stake, the crew is soon to discover that one among them is not quite as human as he appears to be...





	Starsong

**Author's Note:**

> the theme was mermaids. but i put them in space.  
> Because SCI FI FINDS A WAY 🚀✨🧜

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...... cmd_process files {routine script denied}

...... override detected;

Access granted. Loading secure_datastream, allocating physical copy

 

_FEDERATION SHIP LOG_

_STARDATE: 2912.04_

 

_MISSION: Search and rescue. Recent reports claim radar interference and scattered distress beacons within the Nik Centauri quadrant. Mercenary crew assembled to investigate repeated disappearance of Federation ships._

 

_ERROR, MISSION CORRECTION: Hunting expedition._

 

.

 

.

 

Keith’s boots ring on the metal as he stomps toward the bridge, stolen papers crumpled in his fist. _Hunting._ He should have known.

 

There’s always the risk of taking a bad job, especially on mercenary crews like this. But the Federation was a generally trustworthy employer, and Shiro had never steered the two of them wrong before. They just hadn’t known the voyage would be led by Galra personnel, ‘volunteered’ from the Empire. That should have been Keith’s first clue — no matter how much he got along with the other members of this expedition.

 

Too many ships had gone missing in the far reaches of this galaxy, so the brass had finally decided to assemble a crew and solve the problem. Shiro and Keith had taken this bounty together thinking they could make a difference. Thinking they could help people.

 

Keith passes the engineering room, a familiar voice calling out as he storms by.

 

“You alright there, mullet?”

 

But they were wrong. This whole mission was just another Galra scheme. Chasing shadows and disregarding those who actually needed their help.

 

“H-hey! You can’t just ignore me!” The lanky mechanic stumbles into the hallway behind him, trying to catch up as Keith marches resolutely toward the command room. Hunk steps around the corner a moment later, arms laden with machine parts to keep the engine running, and Keith is forced to pull up short.

 

A firm hand lands on his shoulder a second later. “Dude, what is going on with you?” Lance asks. “You look like you’re gonna run somebody through.”

 

Keith whirls, shaking off the touch. “We’re being lied to,” he says through gritted teeth. “Something’s been off with this mission since the first cycle. And I’ve finally got proof.”

 

Hunk and Lance had come aboard only a few days before departure, a last minute addition to the mechanics team. Pidge had recommended them apparently, the trio having worked a few jobs together in the past. And with a reputation like hers, Federation command would give the young engineer whatever she needed to keep the ship star-sailing. Her friends were added to the crew manifest with no time for detailed questions.

 

Since then, Hunk and Lance had kept to themselves — making friends with the human and Altean crewmembers, but clearly unsettled by the Galra presence running the ship. Keith sometimes wondered why they had been so determined to join this particular mission.

 

The two boys’ eyes flit down to the documents in Keith’s fist, wrinkled and crushed now but recognizable all the same. Paper isn’t easy to come by on vessels like this, and such a luxury could only belong to—

 

“You went in the _captain’s quarters??”_ Hunk exclaims. “You realize Sendak is going to kill you, right? He’s been biding his time waiting for the chance to maroon you on an asteroid!”

 

Lance reaches for the papers, real concern lacing his expression, but Keith jerks away. He doesn’t have time for this. “I’m going to the bridge. Now. They have us on a useless hunt for _mermaids.”_

 

Hunk glances up at Lance, eyes wide, and Keith takes the opportunity to push past. Of course it had been a risk, sneaking in to access the private logs, yet he had never expected the lie to go this far. And such a useless one at that.

 

Astral mermaids don’t exist, of course. No more than a legend passed among gullible spacefarers. But something has been making freighter ships disappear, and if the captain is keeping secrets, then the whole crew may be in danger.

 

The door to the command room opens with a hiss, making Allura turn from her station at the intrusion. The quartermaster’s face shifts to alarm as Keith charges past her to confront the captain. “Keith we’re in the middle of an EVA oper—”

 

“Explain this,” Keith demands, pushing the papers up toward Sendak. “Explain these new assignment details. Tell them that our real mission is to hunt down something that was never even there.”

 

Glowing yellow eyes narrow in anger, low growl covered by the sound of Hunk and Lance arriving a few footsteps behind their crewmate.

 

_“Confidential mission update from Galra command,”_ Keith reads out. _“Capture and secure the source of astral interference as top priority. Federation losses to be treated as necessary casualties._ ”

 

“Is this true?” Shiro’s disembodied voice rings out over a comm line. Keith turns to the massive observation window only to see his partner suited up outside. A smaller figure in green floats beside him, halfway through installing a tether beacon on the ship’s hull. “You’ve been receiving new orders from the Galra Empire?”

 

Sendak stands up to loom over his crew from the captain’s platform. “You are here to follow my command and protect the ship as needed. The Galra have more than enough intel to suggest that—”

 

“We came here to help people!” Keith shouts. All those missing ships, all those lost travelers. And this mission has been doing nothing to help them the whole time. “Innocent people are out there somewhere in the void, stranded or worse, and you have us chasing a damn _fairytale.”_

 

Lance opens his mouth to speak, but someone else beats him to it.

 

“They’re no myth,” Hunk says solemnly. “We’ve seen ‘em ourselves, out at the Fintan nebula.” The rest of the room looks over to him in surprise. The engineer shrugs. “And it makes sense. Merfolk mimic beacons, interfere with ship radar. Can you imagine how useful that would be to the Galra Empire?”

 

Pidge is the first to react, breathless with questions over the comms. “You’ve seen them? In person? What did they look like? Do they really swim through the void?”

 

“They were beautiful,” Hunk sighs. “And despite the stories claiming some sort of magical creature, astral mermaids are just as organic as you and me. They’re brilliant, smarter than you can imagine.” He shakes his head slowly. “When their home planet started to disintegrate, they became inventors — adapting their species to the emptiness of space with technology and genetics alike. They don’t even need to breathe oxygen anymore! Just absorb pure energy from the trails of comets or stars.”

 

“Or ships,” Lance offers, fingers tapping nervously against the shiny silver of his belt. He freezes the motion when he notices Keith’s stare.

 

“So they do attack ships,” Shiro says, spacesuit shifting as he surveys the void again.

 

“No!” Lance is quick to answer, defending this unknown species. “They’re scavengers, not murderers. The worst they do is pull parts from dead ships as they need them. Mermaids can’t possibly be the cause of these ships disappearing, not unless it was self defense.”

 

“They lure in space vehicles as an energy source, feeding off radiation emissions as the ship passes,” Sendak says. “The sirens’ very survival depends on their ability to deceive spacer technology and redirect targets as they please. And that’s just what we know from whispers and myths! Think of how many other songs we may not even know about yet.”

 

“So that’s it then?” Allura demands. “That we’re here for... for you to capture these creatures and use them as a weapon?”

 

Sendak rounds on her with a snarl. “With that ability, we could conquer the universe twice over. The Empire _will_ have this power, before someone else makes use of it.” He gestures to the rest of the Galra crew. “Seize them.”

 

Claws are at his throat before Keith can even draw his blade. Hunk and Lance squirm uselessly in the grip of other soldiers, Allura no better off. Just as Keith prepares to throw an elbow, an alert trills from one of the abandoned stations.

 

“Unhand me,” Allura says, tugging herself toward the command board. “It’s a distress beacon. This could be the missing ships!”

 

“Impossible.” Sendak brings up a display on the main screen. “After all, the Galra crippled those ships ourselves. Left a pulsing mass of energy and spare parts — just waiting for a group of sirens to take the bait.”

 

A small orange beacon flares from the edge of the map. The captain’s lips curl into a smile as he stares at the flickering light. “That’s no distress call.”

 

“...it’s a song.” Lance’s voice is quiet from beside Keith, wide blue eyes locked onto the holoscreen. He’s stopped pulling against the Galra restraining him, captivated by the slowly approaching beacon.

 

The command room is silent only for another heartbeat, and then Sendak snaps to action. He sends his crew to their ships, calls for activation of the tether coils.

 

“They casting a net!” Hunk cries. “Pidge, temprasonic coils aren’t just for scanning, they can be used to —”

 

“To create a forcefield, I know!” The smaller engineer kicks away from the hull and glides into place beside Shiro. She jams a tool into a control panel and pries up, bright wires and metal cable drifting out like the tendrils of a jellyfish. “Shiro we have to stop them. Open that other case, I can rewire it to broadcast like a warning.”

 

“Detach the diving hoses,” Sendak orders. “See how useful they can be without life support.”

 

“NO!” Keith throws himself against his captor, hearing the others struggling beside him. Without pressure control, without a supply of fresh air... Shiro and Pidge will be unconscious within minutes. And then their hearts will stop.

 

Six Galra fighterships pour out from the loading bay, the smaller crafts much faster and maneuverable than the main vessel. The type of ships for a chase.

 

Keith pulls forward and then jerks his head back, impacting solidly with the soldier holding him. But instead of letting go, the Galra roars and wrestles Keith sideways, pinning him against the metal floor to wrestle magnetic cuffs around his wrists.

 

Even as he goes down, Keith manages one good kick to the side. The burly soldier holding Lance lets out a shout of pain — and then a shout of alarm.

 

In a blur of blue and silver, Lance rushes past. Rather than running toward the exit, he makes a beeline for the airlock. There are no Galra positioned there to stop him, of course, because _what kind of idiot dives into an emergency airlock right now?_

 

As he runs, Lance tugs at the belt around his waist, kicking off his boots and slamming a palm to the airlock seal button. The control panel flashes red and locks behind him.

 

That must have been a mistake, though.  A hit to the wrong button in Lance’s haste to seal the door. Keith feels his stomach drop when the atmosphere evacuation process begins.

 

There’s no time to suit up.

 

“Lance what are you thinking??” Allura shouts, voice cracking in desperation. At this rate, she’s going to watch three of her sailors suffocate in the vacuum of space. Keith writhes, wrenching his shoulders uselessly against the handcuffs as he’s pulled upright again. Hunk is oddly silent behind him, eyes locked on the chamber window.

 

Keith freezes when Lance turns around to look back, chest heaving even as Lance pauses to close his eyes. Not in fear or resignation, but almost as if preparing. Brown eyebrows furrow in concentration, chasing a focused expression but unable to fight the soft smile that tugs at his lips.

 

A warning buzzer sounds for pre-release, and the external airlock doors open. The final traces of atmosphere vent with a rush... and Lance opens glowing blue eyes.

 

Keith’s breath catches in his throat.

 

Instead of spasming in pain or choking for air, Lance straightens. He leans back, tension leaving his shoulders as if savoring the endless backdrop of empty space. Lance is calm, in control like Keith has never seen deckside.

 

In the next moment, he’s pushing himself away — twisting out from the airlock in a graceful swoop. One hand gently taps the side of the ship door as he passes, and the force sends him curling perfectly toward their stranded teammates.

 

He moves in the zero-grav not with the clunky wobbling of an Earthsider, or even with the practiced control of an EVA expert. Lance moves like he’s grown up in the void.

 

As Lance navigates toward Shiro and Pidge, one of the Galra ships takes notice. Keith tenses, pulling harder against the purple claws holding him back. Graceful or not, Lance can only drift forward, continuing the trajectory he started when he pushed off. The fightership turns, blaster at the ready as Allura gasps and Hunk yells a warning. Lance tugs suddenly at the silver band looped around his waist.

 

And it _unfurls._

 

With a shimmering burst of not-fabric, the belt flares out into a curtain of metal scalemail. The material floats around him like an aurora, rippling in a gentle wave of solar wind before it wraps around Lance’s legs. It twists and twines into a perfect extension of his waist, silver flowing to continue far past his feet.

 

Small repulsors burn along the sides, tilting with his hips to let him plunge into a controlled dive. The glimmering metal scales culminate in an elegant fluke that drifts with his movements. It looks like... like a tail, Keith realizes. Perfectly crafted to swim in the cavernous space between stars.

 

Lance flits around the fightership, darting in and out to pull at cables, disable weapons. He tears at his prey like a thresher shark, there-and-gone again before the vessel can even track his motion. The ship is soon left drifting, sparking slightly as it floats.

 

The blip on their radar falters, siren song fading as Pidge’s improvised warning signal takes hold. Sendak visibly shakes off his shock, hand clenching to slam a crushing fist into his command screen.

 

“Forget the mermaid pod,” he growls. “We’ll never catch them once they’ve been startled off. But now... I have a guppy right here.” His eyes track the lithe shape of Lance moving toward Shiro and Pidge. Keith can hear the two of them struggling to breathe over the comms, lungs straining to pull the last traces of oxygen from their dwindling air supply.

 

There’s no time for a delay. He has to _do_ something before the Galra get their claws on Lance, before they leave Pidge and Shiro to die. The magnetic cuffs dig into his wrists as he tries in vain to pry them apart.

 

Keith slumps, arms shaking from exertion as he glances back up to the observation window. His gaze is immediately drawn to meet Lance’s, irises glimmering like reflective cat eyes.

 

Lance lifts his chin slightly, looking across the ship as he opens his mouth. Keith can’t hear anything through the vacuum of space between them, but sees Lance’s lips moving, neck straining with what can only be a song.

 

The lights in the command room flicker.

 

Lance’s eyes narrow in triumph, teeth flashing as he smiles around the words of his song. The ship’s energy fluctuates wildly around them — alarms wail from crackling speakers, holoscreens flip to buzzing static... and Keith’s cuffs deactivate.

 

His palm hits his dagger an instant later, sword unfolding in a bright purple glow as he breaks free. Keith charges forward to swing at Sendak’s head with a furious roar.

 

Allura tilts suddenly to throw her shocked captor to the floor, and Hunk wrestles with his own Galra soldiers. Sendak ducks away from Keith’s attack, stumbling backward in surprise. Keith rotates smoothly with the momentum of his swing, bringing a leg up to kick into the chestplate of the captain’s armor.

 

Sendak falls to the deck with a clatter, looking up just as Keith’s blade comes to a quivering halt at his throat.

 

“Dont. Move.” Keith grits out a final warning just as the rest of the Galra hit the floor.

 

“Consider yourself relieved of your captainly dutes,” Allura says cooly, stepping up to the main console. She reaches immediately for the life support feed as Lance attends to Shiro and Pidge outside.

 

“I should have known this would end in a mutiny,” Hunk mutters, pulling up the controls to the loading bay door. Keith sees him seal out the Galra fighterships, then shift to give Keith an appreciative nod. “I’m glad you took advantage of the last trick Lance had up his sleeve.”

 

They both look to the window, taking in the sight of the astral mermaid outside the ship. Now that Pidge and Shiro are safe, though, Lance has turned away. He’s staring out toward the source of the distress beacon, tail drifting around him. Hunk fumbles to activate an external comm just as Lance starts to move.

 

“Don’t!” Hunk says, and Lance stills. He turns back to his partner, face crumpled with indecision. Lance’s hands twist in a series of motions, graceful fingers fluttering through symbols almost faster than Keith can follow.

 

“What’s he saying?” Shiro asks softly.

 

“He says he has to go,” Hunk translates, not looking away. “That we’ve never been this close before.” He scrubs a hand over his face with a sigh. “And he’s right. It’s what Lance and I have been chasing this whole time, the whole reason we joined this mission. His family is out there, and this could be them.”

 

The blip on the radar is fading fast as the group of mermaids retreats. They had never gotten close enough to see, probably too far away to hear the song of a single siren. Lance looks back again, staring desperately into the inky blackness beyond.

 

“I warned them, scared them away,” Pidge says, drooping. “I had to tell them not to come. I’m sorry.” Lance shakes his head gently, the affection in his smile speaking of instant forgiveness.

 

“No connection is more important than family, and I understand why you want to go,” Allura starts. “But you’ll get lost in the void at this rate.”

 

Lance swivels, eyes flashing and hands moving violently to emphasize the force of his words.

 

“He’s willing to risk it,” Hunk says. “Anything to... to go home.”

 

Lance twists back, repulsors glowing as he prepares to dive into the depths of space. But Keith knows the others are too far away, that Lance will surely be lost in the drifting currents of the cosmos. That he’ll never see the merman again if he lets him go now.

 

“We’ll help,” Keith blurts out. “We’ll help you look, Lance. Your family is out there somewhere, but don’t forget the family you’ve found here.”

 

Blue eyes meet his in shock, looking over one shoulder as Lance hesitates. Keith hardly knows what he’s offering, but that doesn’t stop more words from tumbling out.

 

“We have a ship now, and plenty of fuel to burn.” His crewmates nod in agreement, each of them willing to take up the mantle of a new mission. “We’ll find them. Together.”

 

Keith’s promise hangs between the stars, tension mounting as they all hold their breath to wait.

 

And then Lance turns back. Back to Voltron.

 

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**Author's Note:**

> This fic was originally published for the _Seaborne_ Charity Merzine! To read more Voltron mermaid fics, see more artwork, and learn about purchasing a copy, check out [the Merzine Tumblr](https://voltronmerzine.tumblr.com/) :D


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